Welcome to the world of influencer marketing. More companies than ever are teaming up with celebrities, trending personalities and industry leaders to promote their products and gain recognition. However, many small businesses have been left out of the party.

How could a brand with a small customer base get the attention of a large audience?

How could a local business make a splash in a world of national influencers?

Small businesses don’t need to feel intimidated by influencer giants. It’s possible for a company of any size to take advantage of this marketing to grow its business. The key to success is strategy, planning, and knowing what is right for your brand.

In this article, I am going to break down influencer marketing and provide some real-life strategies and tips that you can use for your business, whether it’s large or small.

What’s more important, getting more people to your website or keeping / converting them once they get there?

The correct answer is both. And fortunately you can tackle both challenges at the same time by focusing your efforts on one primary objective…user experience optimization.

In this article, I will explain what user experience really means, why it has become one of the top success metrics and how you can optimize your website’s user experience to bring and convert more visitors.

I hope so because live video has taken off and it’s not waiting for anyone to catch up.

In this article I am going to compare four of the top live video platforms, share some real life examples of how they’re being leveraged and provide you with some specific tips on how to best integrate live video into your online marketing strategy.

Whether you think that your site doesn’t need HTTPS, you don’t know how to make the change or you just don’t think this is a priority right now, this latest update from Google should push you to action…

Starting January 2017, Chrome 56 will label HTTP pages with password or credit card form fields as “not secure,” given their particularly sensitive nature.

In other words, the world’s most widely used browser will start warning your visitors that your site is not secure if you’re not using HTTPS. Aside from the security, performance and possibly even the SEO benefits, this Google Chrome update is reason enough to convince you to get HTTPS setup on your website right away.

According to BuiltWith, WooCommerce powers 39% of all eCommerce websites on the Internet. I already knew that WordPress has dominant market share, but I was happy to see that more and more online stores and merchants are relying on WooCommerce.

39% of all eCommerce sites are powered by WooCommerce and WordPress — over 1.5 million active stores. Add in the usage of additional eCommerce platforms powered by WordPress and the CMS’s own 17.6 million live sites (over 26% of the entire internet!), and, well… that’s a lot of sites.

With the continued growth and improvement of WooCommerce, it’s really no surprise that this incredible platform is skyrocketing in popularity. Benefits like ownership, scalability, flexibility, simple feature add-ons and ease of setup make WooCommerce the most powerful and versatile option for just about anyone selling anything.

It’s unfortunate, but it seems like every other business I talk to these days has been burned by an SEO agency or a website company at some point.

I don’t see this trend slowing down anytime soon either as the barriers for entry are still far too low, allowing unskilled digital agencies and freelancers to pass themselves off as professionals.

Since there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight I thought it was time to give businesses the tools, answers and insights needed to avoid these situations. These tips are all compiled below in my guide on 7 red flags to avoid with an Internet marketing company or website developer. Read it, learn it and use it and you will never be taken advantage of by another “expert” or “guru” in this industry again.

Have you thought about how artificial intelligence (i.e. robots) might impact your business in the coming months / years?

I hope so, as the rise of artificial intelligence is undeniable in the digital marketing world. In just the past few years, artificial intelligence has already started to make us think about what can and should be delegated to automation controlled by AI.

In this article I will explain how online marketing with artificial intelligence will allow you to drive better results through more quantified and automated strategies. More companies than ever — from Google and Facebook to your aunt’s crafting business — are turning to AI to improve their business and marketing tactics and I hope to help you do so as well.

Have you found it increasingly more difficult to get the right exposure for your local business in Google’s search results?

If you’ve been employing a comprehensive local SEO strategy coupled with an aggressive local advertising campaign, then you’re probably reaping the rewards of establishing a strong local presence on Google. However, if you are not doing either of these things then you can be certain that getting any type of exposure towards the top of Google’s desktop or mobile search results pages is going to be a long, expensive, arduous process.

On this front, Google has obviously realized the impact of mobile and the demand for timely local search results so they are going to make it a bit easier for local businesses to get much better positioning within mobile and map search results.

This news is very positive for all local businesses, especially those that heavily rely on having a strong presence in Google’s map search and mobile search results.

Do you want your website search results to display as prominently and visually appealing as possible?

If you’re not sure how to answer that I am going to go ahead and answer “Absolutely!” for you. The more your website’s search results stand out on a search results page, especially on mobile devices, the more likely it is that users will get to your website.

With Google’s Rich Cards release, your mobile search results now have an opportunity to grab the majority of click throughs. By ensuring that your website properly supports Schema markup you give your website a chance to showcase some very enticing search results.

Although this initial announcement is specific to mobile search results pages it could make its way to desktop search results as well. In other words, optimizing your website’s code to use / support Schema just became a much bigger priority.